Things are starting to move forward on the living wall these days! We have finished all the 'hard' hardscape (Cement/steel) and have been working on the 'medium' hardscape (mesh/capillary mat/piping) this week. Hope that things will be ready to start plugging in the plants next week (though a week of testing out the mist system/automatic controller/etc would probably be a good idea first!)

Here's a few shots of things progressing;

Last week;

Prepping the anchor bolts;

1st layer of capillary mat up;

from above;

first layer of mesh going up;

mesh layer up;

another layer of cap mat and a little more lighting going up;

My friends says it looks like a giant speaker!;

Ok, hopefully we will get the garden irrigation emitters in next week it'll start looking greener/prettier!

Hi JK, Yeah, it's not really a 'weekend' project! We have been at this since sometime in early January! The hardest part is going to be trying NOT to over-do it with the plants! I plan on using a lot of ferns (some pretty exotic), hoyas (for scent), neps (of course!),. a few orchids here and there and a mixture of various epiphytes I've been growing. Hopefully by December of this year you won't be seeing the black of the capillary mat anymore! I really need to put in a lot of very small things that can then root themselves firmly into place. It will take some time but I think it'll be worth it!

Hi boonleng, I've had a little 'slow-down' as this is a long holiday weekend in Thailand and the relay switches and the transformers for the pump power supplies have to be assembled in Bangkok and then shipped down to me. I want to run the water systems for at least a few days before I start putting in/on the plants. The emitters for the wall system are on a pipe running along the top edge of the wall, wrapped in between layers of the capillary mat material. I'm thinking of changing my filtertank/water resevior to a much larger size so I don't have to worry about it pumping itself dry.

Well, we got a few days work in on the wall after a looooong break! I've only just started setting in the 'under-story' planting (kind of like ground covers) to let it get a bit of a head start on growing before starting to but in larger plants. I'm afraid it's going to have to go through a grow-in period before it'll look like much. I'll take some new pictures next week!
~Shawn